Samantha Post

An Analysis on a Journalists Attempt to Achieve Equality

Slavery was abolished in 1865, the Civil Rights Movement ended in 1968, and now,
America celebrates Black History month and Martin Luther King Day each year throughout the
country. It is effortless and desirable to believe that the United States has achieved equality, and
that the struggle against racism is over. However, Gillian Laub provides evidence of inequality in
her photo essay A Prom Divided on segregated proms in Georgia and her HBO documentary
Southern Rites that focuses on the racial divide in the criminal justice system, voting, and
social lives. Both artifacts her photo essay and HBO documentary are two distinct ways that,
through the use of kairiotic timing and emotional appeals, successfully introduce and describe
how racial inequality still exists in society today and encourages advocacy and change from her
viewers.
In 2002, photographer Gillian Laub was commissioned by the New York Times to go
down to Montgomery County, Georgia, to photograph an appalling practice that had not changed
since the times of Jim Crow Laws and segregation. Montgomery County High School was
holding segregated homecoming dances and proms, and this long-standing tradition was finally
brought to the attention of the American public thanks to the photo essay Laub published in The
New York Times in 2009. Laub began her work in Georgia by befriending, getting close with,
and photographing individuals who had something to say either in support or defense of the
segregated proms. She talked with many different young people, all who had very emotional
perspectives on the segregation that was occurring in their town. A white senior boy admitted
that [having segregated prom] is how it always was and doesnt need to change, but others
were angered and saddened; one white girl in a bi-racial relationship admitted that she was told

if my date was going to be black, he wouldnt be let in [to the prom]. In 2011, two years after
the New York Times published Laubs photo essay entitled Southern Rites, the community
finally integrated their proms due to public pressure and outrage.
This artifact calls to the civic because it informs society on race related issues that still
persist today, and it demands a public outcry and fight for prom integration. In the expos
published by the New York Times, it quotes that the senior proms held by Montgomery County
High School students are organized outside school through student committees with the help of
parentsthe white prom remains governed by a largely unspoken set of rules about who may
come, (Corbett). This quote engages in a rhetorical appeal of pathos and evokes feelings of
outrage against the racist ideologies of some white parents, frustration due to the lack of
pushback from the school and students and finally, motivation to end the segregated proms.
Clearly, this quote as well as the general message of photo essay evokes a strong sense of civic
responsibility, remind viewers that it is their civic duty to defend equality and demand society to
get involved and take a stand.
Laubs photo essay, A Prom Divided most effective component in advocating for
equality is the use of emotion or Pathos. Being that the photo essay is mainly visual, she utilizes
the facial expressions of her subjects, props in the images and quotes that provide context to
appeal to the viewers emotion. This is extremely important because it puts the viewers in the
shoes of those experiencing segregation, and helps the viewer actually feel and understand their
frustration, sadness and disappointment. One of the most emotionally powerful situations in this
photo essay is a photograph of a crowd of white parents standing outside the building where the
prom was being held. The context of this image, provided in the paired news article, describes
how a group of black seniors went to cheer and photograph their friends doing the senior walk

into the prom. One girl describes how they got stared at a little, but it wasnt too bad. This
photo accompanied with context is extremely heartbreaking because it portrays how all the high
schoolers are supportive and amazing friends regardless of color, but their parents reinforce
racial tensions that the children grow up to adopt. Moreover, the facial expressions in the
portraits of black students at their prom similarly appeal to emotion. The defeated expressions
that are so clearly shown on their face paired with the props of bright, sparkly dresses or fancy
suits silently pair adolescence and innocence with the powerful emotional struggle of
marginalization. This appeals emotionally to the audience because seeing American youth
dealing with segregation on a day that should be a celebration of the end of their high school
career is heartbreaking.
Emotion is a very strong appeal in Laubs rhetorical argument, but the way she
incorporates commonplaces and ideologies is equally effective. One photograph in Laubs essay
is of a teenage girl wearing a crop-top that sports the Confederate Flag. The subject is leaning on
the hood of a red Mustang, and in the background is a billboard advertising Sons of Confederate
Veterans Join Now! This photograph perfectly represents the ideologies and commonplaces in
Montgomery County, Georgia. Without words, it explains that not much has changed in their
county since the times of Jim Crow, and that segregation is still culturally acceptable. This is an
extremely important rhetorical appeal solely because of the gap between the ideologies in
Georgia and the ideologies in the community at Penn State (and many communities in America).
At Penn State, segregation is viewed as completely wrong and immoral and there are rarely such
cases of prejudice whereas in Montgomery County, segregation is a norm. This dramatic
difference from ideology shocks the audience and therefore encourages them to take a stand for
integrated proms.

In 2011, two years after the New York Times published Laubs photo essay entitled
Southern Rites, the community finally integrated their proms due to public pressure and
outrage. To document the community coming together to fight prejudice and segregation, Laub
returned to Montgomery County. Howevver, during the time she was there, a tragedy happened.
Twenty-two year old Justin Patterson was shot and killed by an older white male, Norman
Neesmith. Neesmith was the legal guardian of an eighteen year old girl, Danielle, who invited
Patterson over to their house in the middle of the night. Neesmith woke up, realized what was
going on, and shot and killed Justin as he was running out the door. This incident shifted the
focus of Laubs work instead of a just the documentation of a community coming together,
Laub begins to explore the issue of race in general, as well as the racial divide in the criminal
justice system, voting, and social lives in her HBO documentary, Southern Rites.
Laubs documentary, Southern Rites premiered in May of 2015, and the kairiotic
timing could not have been better. After the death of Treyvon Martin in 2012, the acquittal of his
shooter George Zimmerman in 2013 and the deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Garner in 2014
and Freddie Gray in April of 2015, the media and community were just waiting for another
incident that proved their point the United States still hasnt achieved racial equality. In the
media, there has been resurfacing discussion and debate regarding racism and implicit biases in
our country. In the white community, white privilege has allowed for neglect and ignorance of
the struggle that the black community has always been facing. There is some racism that is easy
to identify, but most is structural and prevalent in the criminal justice system, for example, with
who does and doesnt get charged for a crime. There is also an inability to discuss racism in a
non-defensive manner, which prevents discussion at all and therefore helps racially skewed
systems stay in place. However, with a lot more research being done, information being provided

in schools, and mass media advocating for equal rights and that Black Lives Matter, a great
portion of society was awakened to the struggles of the African American community, therefore
the time conjoining with the appropriate audience creates the perfect rhetorical moment for
Laubs documentary and enforces its civic purpose.
The two different methods Laub uses to approach the subject of race in our country are
both extremely effective, but have different goals and appeal to different people. Laubs photo
essay was a direct attempt to gather public pressure in order to eliminate segregated proms. The
essay was printed in the New York Times, a newspaper thats circulation is 1,379,806 daily and is
read by all different audiences with a clear and concise message that described the proms and
provided different perspectives on them. The article is written in a bias way, as it gets the
audience to sympathize with the outrageousness of segregated proms. Even though race is a huge
component of A Prom Divided, it does not invite as much discussion on the topic, theories and
prevention of racism as a whole as HBOs Southern Rites documentary does. The documentary
appeals to a different audience an audience that is curious about the racial divide in the
criminal justice system, social lives and voting as well as an audience that will go out of their
way to engage in learning and discussion about race. Its aim is not simply to change one specific
thing, but eliminate the entire problem. Both methods use emotion and kairiotic timing as well
as a contrast in ideologies to demonstrate their purpose, however the goals and audiences
reached are different in the essay and documentary.
Racism is not just prevalent in obvious forms of segregation and death of African
American youth. It does much more damage on deeper levels. American feminist, author and
social activist Bell Hooks explains that the sense of agency our society engrains in African
Americans is extremely detrimental. Hooks taught at both a predominately white and

predominately black university, where both students were of equally intelligence. She describes
that the white students she taught had embraced entitlement to a successful future and were
absolutely positive that they would achieve their life goals, however the black students she
taught felt that a successful future was out of reach, and that they were not entitled to one. Race
is a social construct it is societys assumption that ethnicity has a biological basis. This has
fueled stereotypes, prejudice and discrimination. It is so incredibly important that the nation
comes together and makes every effort to fix this problem, which is not an easy or fast process.
Through her documentary and photo essay, this is what Laub is asking. Between demanding
equality in one school, in one town in Georgia and equality for the entire population of African
Americans, Laub advocates for equal rights and discusses race in a calm and open way,
encouraging all Americans to call upon their civic responsibilities and do the same.

Works Cited
Hooks, Bell. "Bell Hooks - Cultural Criticism and Transformation." YouTube. YouTube, 10 Dec.
2006. Web. 06 Oct. 2015.
Laub, Gillian. "Southern Rites (HBO Documentary Films)." YouTube. YouTube, 8 May 2015.
Web. 05 Oct. 2015.
Laub, Photographs Gillian. "A Prom Divided." The New York Times. The New York Times, 23
May 2009. Web. 05 Oct. 2015.
"The New York Times." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 06 Oct. 2015.
"Southern Rites Project." RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 05 Oct. 2015.
Stanley, Alessandra. "Review: Southern Rites, an HBO Documentary on the Killing of a Young
Black Man in Rural Georgia." n.d.: n. pag. The New York Times. The New York Times, 17
May 2015. Web. 05 Oct. 2015.